annual; leaves 6–8 in. long, 1–2 lin. broad, linear, entire or distantly toothed with subulate teeth, obscurely 3-nerved, sessile, clothed on both sides with lax slender spreading hairs; peduncles terete, 5 1/2 in. long in the only specimen at Kew, clothed with lax spreading hairs; spikes cylindric, 1 1/2 in. long; rhachis with long slender hairs; bracts boat-shaped, rostrate, with broad scarious margins, the lower bracts reaching 2 lin. long, the upper rather shorter; sepals 1–1 1/4 lin. long, suborbicular, quite glabrous; corolla-lobes scarcely 1/2 lin. long, ovate, acute; style 1 lin. long; capsules 1 3/4 lin. long, ovoid, glabrous, coming off circumscissilely from near the base; seeds 1 1/4 lin. long, ellipsoid, with rounded back and a flat channelled face, black, smooth. null
